Hurricane Season Spawns 19 Storms in Third-Most Active Year

Hurricane Kenneth is shown in this satellite photo on November 22, 2011. Photograph: NOAA-NASA GOES Project

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Atlantic hurricane season
spawned 19 storms, including Irene, which struck the East Coast
in August leaving destruction from North Carolina to Vermont, a
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statement said.

The peak-storm period, which ends Nov. 30, ties 2010, 1995
and 1887 as the third-most-active one since 1851, according the
statement. The average season produces 11 storms with winds of
at least 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour.

“This season is a reminder that storms can hit any part of
our coast and that all regions need to be prepared each and
every season,” Jack Hayes, director of NOAA’s National Weather
Service, said in the statement.

Hurricanes inflicted $153.7 billion in insured U.S. losses
from 1991 to 2010, adjusted for inflation, accounting for 44
percent of all catastrophic losses in the period, according to
the Insurance Information Institute in New York. Hurricane
Irene, which struck in August, caused an estimated $7.2 billion
in damage and killed 55 people in the Caribbean and 14 U.S.
states, according to Weather Underground Inc.

In the U.S., New Jersey was hit the hardest with $915
million in insured losses, according to the insurance institute.

Irene became the first hurricane to strike the U.S. since
Ike came ashore near Galveston, Texas, in 2008, NOAA said.

Hurricane Irene

“Irene broke the ‘hurricane amnesia’ that can develop when
so much time lapses between landfalling storms,” Hayes said.

It has been six years since a major hurricane, with winds
of at least 111 mph, has struck the U.S., the longest stretch on
record. Wilma, in 2005, was the last.

Seven hurricanes with winds of at least 74 mph formed this
year and three of them achieved major status.

“Although the 2011 hurricane season has ended, our need to
prepare for disasters hasn’t,” Craig Fugate, administrator of
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in the statement.
“Being prepared for all kinds of hazards, from hurricanes to
blizzards to tornadoes, is a year-round activity.”

This year’s storm total exceeded Colorado State
University’s pre-season prediction of 16 named storms. It fell
short of the institution’s forecast that nine of those systems
would become hurricanes and five would be major hurricanes.

It also exceeded NOAA’s May forecast that called for 12 to
18 storms to form. In August, NOAA upgraded its prediction to 14
to 19 storms, with 10 becoming hurricanes and three to five
achieving major status.